This Week In Retro: The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Patreon)

January 14, 1987: No errors detected

by Diamond Feit

I'm not sure another video game will ever have the impact that the original Legend of Zelda did back on the NES. The title was meaningless, the advertisements were pure gibberish, but the packaging and the extra special gold cartridge all screamed "play this game" loudly and proudly. Of course, once I actually got my hands on the game, I was immediately hooked. With its wide-open world map and dark dungeons to explore, each time I turned on my NES, I felt like I was embarking on an epic quest.

What we never knew back then was that it took Nintendo over a year to bring The Legend of Zelda from Japan to the rest of the world. Not only did all the in-game text and manual have to be localized, the software had been created for the Famicom Disk System and thus had to be converted to work in cartridge form. In fact, by the time any of us asked the question "who's Zelda?" Nintendo already had a sequel ready for Japanese audiences.

35 years ago this week, The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link debuted, like its predecessor, for the Famicom Disk System. The story directly follows the first game, save for a brief time jump to age up the primary characters. However, despite the familiar setting and its green-clad hero, Zelda II drastically rewrites the playbook from Zelda I, making it feel like a completely different game.

To casual consumers perusing the video game aisle at their local toy store, Zelda II certainly looks like Zelda I at first glance. The box is still gold, there's a screenshot showing a traditional top-down view of the kingdom of Hyrule, and it's still a game about Link rescuing Zelda by exploring an overworld and clearing a series of dungeons (now called "palaces"). Should players take the game home though, the new mechanics are evident from the moment they assume control of Link. Instead of starting outdoors, Zelda II begins inside a temple where Princess Zelda sleeps and Link stands beside her, and the action is presented in a 2D side-view, an angle never seen in the previous game.

Exiting the temple, players get an eagle-eye view of the land as the game switches back to a top-down perspective, but things still aren't quite normal. Pressing A or B on the controller does nothing, even though Link is clearly carrying a sword inside the temple. There's also no sign of movement in the surrounding area, even though the first screens of Zelda I are teeming with monsters. The only thing players can do is walk away from the temple along a path.

Should players step off the beaten path, a likely outcome as there are few reachable destinations along it, dark "shadows" appear on the overworld and flutter back and forth to menace Link. These are not monsters per se, but they represent hostile encounters, as touching any of them whisks Link to a side-view screen for combat. Entering a town, a cave, a palace, or any location at all likewise switches perspectives. What this means is that the bulk of Zelda II is a 2D action game with running and jumping, and the top-down view is only used to navigate the world map.

There has never been a commandment from up on high dictating that sequels must deliver a similar experience to that which preceded them, but Zelda II comes from an era when experimentation ran wild. Yet even though Super Mario and Castlevania took major liberties with their second entries, the moment-to-moment gameplay largely retains the feel (if not the exact flavor) of their initial games. America's Super Mario Bros 2 is still a game about running and jumping, and Castlevania II is still a gothic adventure about whipping the undead.

Zelda II, however, carries over only superficial elements from Zelda I, tossing the rest in favor of dynamic action. Swordplay is a single-button, straightforward experience in the first game; pressing A stabs forward, damaging any monsters within range, and when Link has full health he can fire his sword across the screen. In Zelda II, combat requires much more strategy, as enemies can strike Link at different angles. He still has a full-health sword beam, but it only travels a few centimeters.

The Legend of Zelda is not a series expressly about fighting evil beasts, but in every game Link must overcome a lot of monsters in order to rescue Princess Zelda. The fact that Zelda II uses a different perspective for combat means that the majority of the adventure is a fundamentally different experience than the original title. It's also a lot more difficult, especially once shield-bearing enemies appear and challenge Link to manage his offense and defense at the same time.

None of these radical changes were unintentional. According to Zelda II director Tadashi Sugiyama, the project began not as a sequel at all, but as a brand-new concept. "Mr. Miyamoto…wanted to make a side-scrolling action game that made use of up and down movements for attacks and defense," he said in a 2016 interview (translated by NintendoEverything.com). Likewise, the increased difficulty was a choice, one that was not uncommon for its era. "Games didn’t have a ton of content at that time," Sugiyama said, "so in order to have them played for as long as possible we felt like we couldn’t make them easily clearable."

Speaking as a Legend of Zelda fan, I had little objections when I finally played Zelda II sometime in 1989. Yes, it was much harder than the game I had fallen head over heels for, but it is still an excellent action game, one that I remember playing over and over because I enjoyed the combat so much. I completed the game so many times that I had the route through the Great Palace committed to memory, and its special theme music is still locked inside my brain all these decades later.

As time marched forward, however, The Legend of Zelda II saw its reputation falter, at least partially through no fault of its own. Its immediate successor dropped nearly all of Zelda II's innovations to return to the Zelda I formula, and today A Link to the Past stands as one of the most beloved video games ever made. A subsequent Game Boy spinoff had its quirks (including side-view areas), but it too resembles the original Zelda game, and today Link's Awakening is considered one of the best handheld games of all time. The next game was Ocarina of Time and, well, I think you see the pattern here.

This leaves Zelda II standing on the outside looking in as all its siblings, cousins, and descendants rake in the accolades year after year, seemingly for undoing all its unique features. Even producer Shigeru Miyamoto has little praise for Zelda II, once telling Kotaku it was his only "bad" game, although the air quotes around the word "bad" in his statement should be visible from space.

Do I love Zelda II? Not like I love Super Mario Bros 2 or Castlevania II, that's for sure, two sequels that took big chances but still retained the fun elements from their progenitors. Yet I certainly embraced Zelda II as a worthy entry back when only two Zelda games existed, so I cannot abide any accusations that its differences make it a lesser outing.

Nintendo as an organization does not treat Zelda II as an aberration; it was a multi-million seller on the NES and it appears on every Virtual Console library the company has ever produced, including the Famicom/NES Classic mini-console. When the original Legend of Zelda turned 35 in 2021, Nintendo created a special full-color Game & Watch that included Zelda I, Zelda II, and Link's Awakening. I couldn't tell you how Nintendo will sell us retro games in the future, but it's a safe bet that Zelda II will always be available, no matter the format.

I think Zelda II is best appreciated today as an early take on the "action RPG," as it resembles a modern Metroidvania more than any other Zelda game. Link gains new skills which enable him to reach new areas, and as he defeats enemies he earns experience points which allow him to build up his strength, his magic, and his health. I don't think it handles these ideas all that well, as Zelda II also hobbles players with a limited number of lives which, when exhausted, forces them to return to the beginning temple and wipes away any unassigned experience points. In the Japanese version of the game, players can even lose levels!

It's ok if you find Zelda II not to your liking. It's ok if you think it's too hard. It's also ok to play it today with save states and an FAQ to mitigate its challenging design decisions. The only thing that is not ok is to dismiss it as a "black sheep" or slander it as a "bad" game. Zelda II is exactly what its creators wanted it to be, a new kind of fantasy adventure which tasks players with combat that requires more than hammering a single button. Even if other Zelda games walked back its explicit RPG elements, scores of other games latched onto its ideas and hold them aloft today as sacrosanct. I may not revisit Zelda II as often as its sequels, or its predecessor, but I have no choice but to respect its legacy.

Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but is forever online, sharing idle thoughts on Twitter and playing games on Twitch.